Security, how secure are you on the internet?

I am sure you have heard numerous times you need to have a secure password and adequate virus protection.  Those are basic things you must do to be safe.  There are some other things you can do to stay secure.
I am sure you have heard to make your password at least 8-14  characters, alternate upper and lower case, do not use "words", do not use consecutive numbers or letters,  and don't use your logon name as a password.  Check out this site to test your password security.
https://howsecureismypassword.net
There are some other things you need to be aware of in our tech savy world.   Do you ever go to a coffe shop and while your there you check to see if that check went in the bank?   If you do, you are opening up your bank account and sharing your information with hackers and identity thieves.  Just because a wireless connection, like a coffee shop, requires a password does not mean that is a secure connection.   Anyone that is on that same wireless link could access your logon information to use later.  You also should be aware of shoulder surfers too.  You could run into this same thing when using your computer or phone at the airport.  Shoulder surfers are those people that linger over your shoulder to see you log into your bank account or Facebook.  I am not trying to make you paranoid but these are tactics used daily by hackers. 
If you travel a lot with work or just for the occasional vacation, have you noticed some hotels provide computers for your use either in your hotel room or in lobby areas?  These are great for looking up random things but, do not use these to check your email, bank accounts, or even Facebook.   These computers could have key logging software added to them and they could get all of your log on information this way.  I am not saying hotels do this on purpose but, how many times have you heard of friends having a camera and such taken out of their rooms while on vacation?  This is the same concept only it goes a little deeper.  You do not know who has access to those computers and what they may be doing with them. 

At home, keep your computer up to date with it's virus software and Windows updates.   You should virus scan at least once a week along with a malware scan.  If I have not shared this one with you before  www.malwarebytes.org  has free malware software you can download.     Do not click on pop up ads and do not open emails from people you do not know.  Be safe out there, it's a jungle.

Tech Tuesday. . . Donating Computers. . .

It is great to donate your tech equipment if you are no longer using it.  Donating helps others but do be careful when donating computers and anything that contains your personal information.   The best thing to do is to wipe your hard drive clean.  This merely keeps an honest man honest.  You would not leave your house without locking your doors so, do not donate with out wiping that hard drive. Now when I say wipe I mean electronically wipe it not with a swifter.  There are lots of products that claim to erase files and erase your hard drive, do be careful some do not do all that they claim.
Here is a site to check out,  www.dban.org    This offers a FREE program to delete your hard drive, you know I am all about FREE when it comes to computer programs.  I am also very skeptical too.  The sites that I will recommend here are sites that my instructors have recommended and  I deem safe to use.
 I am always looking for used or old computers to work on so if you have one and would like to get rid of it and are local let me know.   I had one friend donate her old desktop to me to work on and I appreciate it so much.  I need the experience of taking them apart and putting them back together and I might also use them for parts.  Here is a picture of me with a motherboard I was working on in class.  Who knew I was a geek at heart?

Changing Things Up. . .

I have decided to change things up with my blog.   My blog is all about me and the many facets of my life as mom, wife, student, sister, daughter, and friend.  I am going to try and organize my blog by day, so this is what to expect.  I will begin with What's cooking Wednesday,   Crafty Thursday,  Financial Friday, Mom Monday, and Tech Tuesday.   Obviously this is merely a guide and life changes, so don't  be surprised  if  Thursday gets thrown out the door and Friday is freaky.  
Since today was Tech Tuesday,  I will throw out a quick tech tip. 
Here is a great piece of free software, yes I said free, to check your computer for malware.   Malware is that pesky thing that can cause your computer to restart every so often or cause your browser to close at an inopportune time.  Malware can also steal your passwords and other information.   Check out www.malwarebytes.org.  This is a free service but, it does have upgrade capabilities that do cost.  I use the free part.  I am not receiving any kickbacks for this post.  This is my honest opinion.   All of my Tech Tuesday posts will offer some type of tech advice and I am not being reimbursed in any way for my posts. 
Check back tomorrow for What's cooking Wednesday.

Practical Experience. . .

I am going back to school to get a degree in Cybercrime.  Many of my classes are about computers.  I have built two computers and I have almost set one on fire.  I have taken apart and put back together several computers.  Today, as part of our class, we had students bring in their computers that were not working properly.    Our job was to talk with them and try to figure out their problems and then fix them.
The gentleman that my lab partner and I got to help had a laptop that he no longer could access the internet with.  We figured out that he had a virus and a couple of malware programs.  He had inadvertently downloaded these while surfing the net.
This can happen to anyone.  I urge you to use caution while surfing and please do not click on just anything.  Make sure you know what you are clicking on.  There are some evil programmers out there that make their pop ups look legit, when in reality they are anything but. 
For the gentleman we are helping, it is going to take another whole day to delete all of the programs that were downloaded to his computer witthout his knowledge. 
Be safe surfing.

Password protection. . .

Did you know that the average person has 12-17 different passwords to remember?  Our chapter we are working on this week is dealing with account management.  I had to interview three people about their passwords and how they remember them.  Did you know that unless your password is at least 12 characters or longer it is considered weak?  Hackers have programs that use a dictionary to run words to find out passwords.  Here are couple of things to keep in mind when picking your passwords.  Don't use personal information like:  kids names, birthdays, and pet names.  It is not good to use words, even spelled backwards because the dictionary program will run all words forward and backward.   You should also use a password with numbers and characters like:  !, @, $, and upper and lower case letters mixed.  
There are programs that you can download to help you keep up with your passwords.  I was a little skeptical about these.  Part of our work in this chapter we had to download a program like this to try it out.   One of these programs can be found at  keepass.info.  This can be downloaded to a USB so that it is not left on your computer all the time.  I like that feature very much.  Check this site out, they have good information about all of this too.   I like the USB feature because you could keep work and personal passwords together.  The draw back is that if you lost your USB then you have lost ALL of your passwords.   Tip for the day; look at your passwords if they are less than 12 characters consider changing them.   As more and more information moves to the computer we are going to need better security to protect our selves.

Computer Security update. . .

So I have been a little under the weather and trying to stay up to date with my class in computer security.  I have to tell you there is a lot out there that I was not aware of.  We have been reading articles about security and how to protect your computer from hackers and spam.  For instance, did you know that spammers run all probable email combinations to send out their emails?  So if your email address is your first initial and your last name then you probably will get a lot of spam mail.
So you should make your email address a little more complicated.  You could also have two emails; one for family and friends and one to use when doing things online or for your customer reward cards.    Some of these are common sense and you may be doing them, if so good job.  With regard to email, if you do not know who the sender is do not open the email or click on any links in the email.  If you receive an email from someone that you know but it looks suspicious follow that gut instinct and don't open it.  This could be spam, a virus, or a worm and you don't want any of those.   Hackers can attach a link and if you click on that link then they will have a backdoor into your computer system and ALL of your information.  They could also use your computer to send spam email and attack others.   Just be safe and follow your gut.  If you think it is suspicious call that person and ask them if they sent you something.  Happy and safe surfing.

Summer School. . .

I am taking one class this summer, a security concepts class.  I got my book and have been looking over it.  Lots of good information.  I have a feeling this summer you may be getting a lot of posts about computer security.  I ended up with 2 A's in my first session.  So very excited, and the more I hear on the news and read in the paper the more I am sure I have picked a great curriculum to study.  
Here is my first tip for my readers;  according to the security gurus, soon any password with fewer than 12 characters will be vulnerable to attacks.  Oh, and for those that like to frequent the coffee shops and use their WiFi, you are opening yourself up for identity theft, viruses, malware, and spyware.  If everyone can access it and use it then everyone can also gain access to your computer too, if they want to.